The TRC bill must be passed in a manner that gives conflict-era victims proper justice
APRIL 9
For the first time after the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government was formed on December 25, Speaker Devraj Ghimire held a meeting with the top leaders of the major political parties – Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre – to discuss the major bills, including third amendment to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), tabled by the government in the House of Representatives.
NC Chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba, main opposition leader and UML Chairman KP Oli and PM and CPN-MC Chair Dahal were present in the meeting.
Apart from the TRC bill, the government also wants to pass the bills on Constitutional Council (Work, Duty and Power and Procedures), anti-money laundering and some acts related to business environment promotion from the current session of the parliament, which will end before the start of the next budget session. The ruling coalition wants to pass the TRC bill through a fast-track while the main opposition is adamant on sending it to a relevant parliamentary committee, which has yet to be formed. The government had registered a bill to amend the TRC on March 9 and had tabled the same in the House on March 23 with a view to endorsing it through the fast-track.
The ruling coalition decided to pass the TRC bill soon after a group of lawyers and individuals, representing the conflict-era victims, lodged writ petitions at the Supreme Court, demanding that Maoist Chair Dahal be punished as per the law of the land for owing up responsibility for the deaths of 5,000 people, not all 17,000, during the decade-long insurgency from 1996 to 2005. While addressing a function to mark thefunction to mark the Maghi Festival in the capital on January 20, 2020, Dahal had said he would take responsibility for the deaths of 5,000 people. Emerging from the meeting with the Speaker, Dahal said they, in principle, agreed to forge consensus on the TRC bill as it also involved some legal and technical issues. He said they would seek the opinions of legal experts on the bill. The conflict victims and rights activists decry that the victims would not get any justice if the TRC bill were to pass as proposed by the government.
The government has categorised human rights violations into 'human rights violation' and 'serious human rights violation' that took place during the decade-long insurgency. The TRC bill has also proposed reaching reconciliations between the serious human rights violators and the victims. However, the apex court's previous verdicts have clearly stated that there should be no amnesty when it comes to dealing with serious human rights abuses such as rape, enforced disappearances, murder or torture after taking hostage. The UN Human Rights body has also called upon the parties involved in the conflict not to give any blanket amnesty on serious rights abuses. What is the meaning of endorsing the bill if it does not take any legal action against the perpetrators of violence? The TRC bill was passed in 2014, and two commissions were formed to look into the cases of rights abuses. But they could not conclude the cases as they turned out to be toothless tigers. This time, the TRC bill must be passed in a manner that the conflict victims get proper justice without the statute of limitation on serious rights abuses.
The TRC bill must be passed in a manner that gives conflict-era victims proper justice
